Charity (Christian virtue)

"The practice of charity brings us to act toward ourselves and others out of love alone, precisely because each person has the dignity of a beloved child of God.

"[6] Charity is held to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit because it both glorifies and reflects the nature of God.

[3] In December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI issued the encyclical Deus caritas est, in which he discussed "... the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.

"[8] Based on the Matthew 25's Parable of The Sheep and the Goats, the early Church saw the love of the poor (periptochias) as the crown jewel of the virtues.

Cappadocian father St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote that It is not at all an easy task to discover the one virtue that surpasses all others and to give it the scepter and palm, just as it is not easy in a meadow fragrant with many blossoms to find the most fragrant and beautiful.After considering many of the Christian virtues, he concludes that following Paul and Christ himself, we must regard charity as the first and greatest of the commandments since it is the very sum of the Law and the Prophets, [and] its most vital part I find is the love of the poor...[9]